












o V 







































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V 




Paper Shell Pecans 



The Paper Shell Pecan 




A Large Pecan Nut Tree at Albany, Georgia, which Yielded 800 lbs. in 1912 



The Tree That Bears Dollars 



SEPTEMBER, 1915 



€^ 



£\^ 



X\^ 



COPYRIGHT, 1915 



ELAM G. HESS 



'CI.A411549 



PR ESS OF 

EXAMINER PRINTING HOUSE 

LANCASTER . PA. 



fu 



/ 



SEP 16 1915 



Foreword 

About a hundred years ago the railroad offered an investment 
opportunity which the Vanderbilts were wise enough to see — and 
to seize. You know that the Vanderbih wealth has lasted through 
generations — increasing year by year. 

About fifty years ago there was a similar opportunity offered 
in steel — demanded by the rapidly growing industries. The name 
of Carnegie heads the list of the famous "thousand steel million- 
aires" — made rich by foresight. 

Forty years ago electricity offered its opportunities to Edison 
— and to many others who ha^'e become extremely wealthy because 
they combined courage with foresight. 

Marvelous as have l^een the fortunes in railroads, in steel 
and in electricity, we are to-day, says the Luther Burbank Society 
in its book, "Give the Boy a Chance," "facing an opportunity four 
hundred times bigger than the railroad opportunity was a hundred 
years ago, eight hundred times bigger than electricity offered at 
its inception, fifteen hundred times bigger than the steel opportunity 
which Mr. Carnegie found — because agriculture is just by these 
amounts bigger than those other industries." 

From land — the most permanent basis of wealth — immense 
fortunes of today and tomorrow are being drawn. America is be- 
ginning to see a new vision, its agriculture is taking a newer, more 
profitable form. 

What is the biggest future in agriculture ? 

When James J. Hill staked his all in apples and received in 
return a profit of ten million dollars — he was merely a pioneer in 
the new type of farming. 



Not Enough Nuts for Demand — None for Export. 

"The present pecan orchards of improved varieties total many thousand 
trees, but there is no doubt that even when present plantings come into bearing, 
the growers will be as short of supplying the demand as they are now ; much less 
able to take care of the large export trade, which can undoubtedly be developed. 
However, it will be some time yet until we can take care of our own markets,"' 
Prof. H. Harold Hume, Glen St. Mary, Pla. 



The Story of the Paper Shell Pecan. 



In the Saturday Evening Post, November 29, 191 3, on page 
56, we read: "Tree crops is the next big thing in farming," says 
J. Rnsseh Smith, "after an 18,000 mile journey through the nut- 
growing countries." 

The last portion of that comment is especially significant when 
considered in connection with the following statement of Luther 
Burbank, the Edison of Agriculture: "Paper Shell Pecans of the 
improved varieties are the most delicious, as well as the most nutri- 
tious nuts in the world. They are higher in food vahie than any 
other nuts, either native or foreign." 

In The Country Gentleman, August 14, 191 5, we read: "The 
tree that yields a pound or two of nuts at five years of age is counted 
upon for twenty to fifty pounds by the tenth year, and after that the 
yield grows beyond anything known in fruit trees, because the Pecan 
at maturity is a forest giant." 

In the face of such facts, is it not wise to consider carefully the 
interesting facts on Paper Shell Pecans found within? 

ELAM G. HESS, 

Manheim, Lancaster County, Pa. 
KEYSTONE PECAN PLANTATION o ^. r i^- p r- 

President ot Keystone recan Company 
Calhoun County, Georgia. Member of National Nut Growers' Association 



From one of the largest nut-tree nurserymen in the world : "The demand 
for Pecans of all descriptions is increasing faster than the supply. Ten years ago 
I bought wild Pecans in Waco, Texas, retail at 4>4 cents. These same nuts are 
now worth 12 to 15 cents wholesale. The large Pecans that we raise bring from 
50 cents per pound up to $1.25. We do not think that the price will ever drop a 
great deal, though a great income can be had even at 25 cents per potind or even 
lower if trees are ten or more years of age. If one had $1,000 to invest they 
would be satisfied with 7%, which is $70, yet five or six trees will bring in this 
income. There are no diseases or insects that are bad on the Pecan, nothing 
like as bad as with the Apple, Peach, etc., nothing that is anywhere near ruinous. 
Pecan trees are naturally a wild tree and therefore very hardy." 



Keystone Pecan Company, Manheim, Pa. 



Right Foods — An Increasing Demand. 

No matter what may happen, the demand for nourishing foods 
IS sure to grow so long as the population increases. Railroads, steel, 
electricity — all are recent developments, none of them indispensable 
to mankind. But existence itself depends on nourishing foods. 

"Then," you say, "no business should be surer than that of 
supplying food to the growing population of America." 

Correct, provided you supply the right food. 

For food standards are changing. Prove that fact, if you will, 
bv the figures of the U. S. Census Bureau for the years 1900 and 
191 o. 

During that period the population of the United States increased 
from 75,091,575 to 91,972,266 — an increase of virtually 22 3/10 
per cent. Therefore the production of any foodstuff should increase 
by the same percentage during that period to provide for the same 
consumption per capita. 

Has the consumption of beef increased during that period? 
Apparently not — for there were 8.7 per cent, less cattle on the farms 
in 191 o than in 1900. Nor was there any material increase in im- 
ports. The price of beef increased in that period — but not so 
greatly as other prices. For the value of all cattle on American 
farms increased only 1.6 per cent, between 1900 and 1910 — an in- 
crease only one-fourth as great as the increase in population. 

There was a loss of 7.4 per cent, in the number of swine on 
American farms and a decrease of 14.7 per cent, in the number of 
sheep — the inevitable result of which loss while population was 
increasing to the extent of 22 3/10 per cent, was an increase per 
pound in pork, ham, bacon, mutton, etc.. which automatically cut 
off a large part of the demand. 

There was a loss of 7.4 per cent, in the number of swine on 
American farms and a decrease of 14.7 per cent, in the number of 
sheep — the inevitable result of which loss automatically cut ofT a 
large part of the demand which was created by the population in- 
creased 22. T, per cent. 



Food 
standards 
are changing. 



Less beef, 
less pork, 
more 
nut-meat. 



*' More Nuts — Less Animal Food — A Healthier Race." 

"I found the Hess High Grade Seedling Pecans delicious eating, and only 
wish I could have them constantly on my table. 

As to the food value of the pecan, I am fully satisfied that it is a perfect 
subsitute for not only meat, liut for butter and all animal fats. When we learn 
to eat more nuts and less animal foods there will be a healthier race in the land.'' 
W. K. R., Sunnyvale, Cal. 



Tlic Story of the Paper Shell Pecan. 



The public 
forced to 
cut down on 
animal flesh. 



Poultry Gains Fail to Equal Increase of Population. 

Poultry was the only exception among meats to this history 
of diminishing supply, increased prices and diminishing demand. 
Yet the gain in the number of all fowls on American farms was 
only 17 per cent, while the population was increasing 22 3/10 per 
cent.; while the American production of nut foods was increasing 
55.7 per cent, in the same period without beginning to meet the 
demand. 

For the increase in value of the American nut crop was 128.1 
per cent., while the increase in consumption required an increase in 
imports so great that in 1910 America was supplying only one-fourth 
of the nuts it was eating (that is, America produced in 1910 nuts 
to the value of $4,447,674, and imported nuts to a value of $13,246,- 
742) ; while in 1900 America had supplied over one-half of the nuts 
it ate ($1,949,931 is the value of nuts raised in America in 1910, to 
$3,484,651 value imported). 

Even the man, or the woman, who has learned by experience 
that nut meat is the healthiest form of real meat value, is aston- 
ished when he or she takes the authentic figures of the United 
States Census Agricultural reports and import statistics to learn how 
many of the thinking people among his fellow countrymen have 
proved their belief in the same facts. And the man who has looked 
upon nuts as a holiday diet alone suddenly awakens to the fact that 
the statement, "nut meat is the real meat," is backed by a 
public consumption three and a half times as great in 19 10 as 
in 1900. 

Higher education in food values has led people to realize the 
necessity for different and more varied diet — and this educational 
development has been facilitated also by economic conditions. 

As population increases, land becomes more valuable. As land 
becomes more valuable — intensive farming is practiced. Grazing 
becomes virtually impossible under such conditions ; and. despite 
all the effort of the Department of Agriculture experts, cattle rais- 
ing is pushed farther and farther from the larger centers of popula- 
tion. Increased transportation and costs of refrigeration mean in- 
creased meat prices — even the importation of large quantities of 
South American beef in the last five years, for instance, has failed 
to keep meat at a low enough price where it could constitute the 
laroe food element which it once was on the American table. 



Keystone Pecan Company, Manheini, Pa. 



Nut Meat— The Real Meat. 

Investigation as to food values was the inevitable result. 

That this investigation has led to a knowledge of nut meat as 
the real meat, containing fat and strength-building qualities never 
before realized — you may judge from the fact that in 1910 the 
consumption of nuts was three and a half times as great as in 1900 
— although there had been an increase of only 22 3/10 per cent, in 
population. Think of it, over fifteen million dollars worth of 
nuts are imported into America each year; and approximately one- 
third of that amount is grown here. According" to Federal statistics 
just reported there were $19,728,924.00 of nuts imported into the 
United States during 19 14. 

These figures, from U. S. Government reports, show that any 
one who assumes that nuts are a holiday luxury is entirely wrong. 
The Pecan, for instance, which is native to America, keeps for a 
year or more in any moderately cool place without losing any of 
its flavor or food value. Because Nature put an air-tight shell 
around the pecan meat — which in the finer grades of paper shell 
pecans has been developed to a point of perfection not even ap- 
proached by the best man-made containers. 

That public demand for pecan nuts is increasing is proved by 
the increase of prices on even the commonest sorts of fifty per 
cent, and more between 1900 and 19 10. 

When J. C. Cooper writes in The Country Gentleman for May 
I, 191 5, that "The demand for walnuts is growing much faster than 
the supply. We do not produce in America more than twenty per 
cent, of what we consume, and it will take fifty to a hundred years, 
with all the encouragement of the nut experts, to raise enough 
walnuts to supply the home demand," he states a condition which 
applies with manifold greater force to the consumption of Pecan 
nuts. It is true that the California production of Walnuts doubled 
during ten years, while the importation trebled — yet in spite of this 
five-fold production English Walnuts constantly increased in price. 



Pecan 
nut meat — 
a year-round 
necessity. 



E. B. Adams, Sec. of Albany, Ga., Chamber of Commerce, furnishes the 
following table, showing the per cent, of protein in some standard foods : 
Pecan 19.8 Veal 15.4 Mutton 13.8 

Walnut 18.2 Corned Beef 14.3 Chicken 12.8 

Turkey 16.1 Pork or Ham 14.2 

Is there any wonder that pecan nut-meat is replacing animal flesh among 
people who make a study of food values? 



The Story of the Paper Shell Pecan. 



Increased 
demand is for 
finer nuts. 



Paper Shell 
Pecans 
meet every 
need. 



The Finer the Nut — The Greater the Demand. 

It is true that in Walnuts a condition has come about as in 
other nuts — that the increasing demand is for the finer, higlier 
priced grades. What are the points of superiority that have led to 
this great increase in public demand ? Why are old established 
black walnut trees less valuable as profit producers than English 
Walnut trees only a cjuarter as okl and producing only a fraction 
of the quantity of nuts? 

First — Thinness of shell and ability to get out the kernels 
whole. 

Second — Superior flavor and food value. 

Third — Attractiveness in appearance of the nut and of the nut- 
meat when removed. 

Fourth — Ease of keeping nuts for longer periods and using 
them readily. 

Now compare the Hess Paper Shell Pecans with the English 
\\\alnut on every one of these four points of public demand. 

It is contained in a shell so thin that it is easily broken in the 
hands without the use of nut crackers. The partitions between the 
kernels average as thin as in the English Walnut, and the average 
person will, in less time, remove more whole kernels of the Paper 
Shell Pecan than of any other nut. 

As to flavor and food value, let such experts as Luther Bur- 
bank answer. (See Foreword, page i.) Remember that his an- 
swer is certainly unbiased, for he is a patriotic native of California 
where America's largest crop of Walnuts is produced — and that 
State produces no cjuantity of paper shell pecans. 

As to attractiveness in appearance, of both the nut and the nut 
meat, you and your friends are the best judges. People who know 
both nuts have alread}- handed in their verdict favorable to the 
paper shell pecan. In addition, the pecan has been endowed bv 
nature with a shell which is air tight — and therefore keeps man)- 
times as long without losing its fine flavor or becoming dry and 
toug-h. 



" The Most Prized of all Nuts for Domestic Uses." 

In Bulletin No. 30 of the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, 
we read regarding Pecans : "In the course of time, however, as they are more 
widely grown, they will become the most prized of all the nuts for domestic use, 
and it is probable that when the supply is large they will be preferred abroad to 
the best Persian nuts " 



Keystone Pecan Company, Maiilicini, Pa. 




In the Company's Packing Room. 

One shipment of Pecans, boxed, ready to send out. 



The Pecan — The Year-round Nut. 

The pecan is the one nut suitable for eating the year round. 
And the present tendency is toward the year-round use of nuts. 

Another reason why the finer pecans are surer to maintain their 
high prices than any other nuts is found in the fact that Walnuts of 
the finest grades are being raised in quantities in California, Oregon, 
Washington and other States, and in England, France, Italy and 
South American countries — while the territory in which the paper 
shell pecan attains to its highest state of perfection is confined to a 
40-mile radius in southwestern Georgia, embracing Calhoun and 
Dougherty Counties. 

Is it any wonder that the State Entomologist of Georgia, Mr. 
E, Lee Worsham, whose name is virtually always included as one 
of "the three big men in liis line of endeavor," wrote: "In my 
opinion the pecan growers of South Georgia have the finest 
horticultural proposition in the United States." 



Can be 

raised at best, 
in a 40-mile 
radius. 



" A Greater Future Than Any Nut Raised in this Country." 

"It is not many years since these delicious nuts, the Paper Shell Pecans, 
were first introduced to the people of the North, and wherever they have gone 
they have met with instant and cordial favor. The Paper Shell Pecan has a 
greater future than any other nut raised in this country. It is a most delicious 
nut." Geo. K. Holmes, Ignited States Bureau of Statistics, Washington, D. C. 



10 



The Story of the Paper Shell Pecan. 



Wild Pecan-- 
a staple food 
among 
Indians. 



*' What is the Paper Shell Pecan ? " 

Mention Pecan to any one who has tasted the improved paper 
shell variety and they will assume that you are talking of paper shell 
pecans. For the person who cracks and eats paper shell pecans 
feels it almost a sacrilege to call the common wild pecan a pecan. 
Yet there are thousands of Americans who have never tasted paper 
shell pecans, and who think of pecans only as wild pecans, grown 
largely in Texas. 

Pecans are divided in three general but radically different 
classes, as the descriptions and cuts Ijelow indicate. 

The ordinary wild pecan is native to America. The earliest 
French explorers found that one of the staple foods of the Indians 
was this palatable nut which grew in the forests 
of the south, and in that portion of Mexico ad- 
joining the Gulf States. Pecan trees \n Texas 
and Louisiana have been found which were 
over five hundred and seven hundred years old 
— which were still yielding large crops of nuts. 

Like the oak, no one e\er knew a Pecan tree to die of old age. 

There are in the Southern States wild pecan trees of which the 
records go back to the first civilization on this continent. 

The pecan tree is so symmetrical and beautiful that it is called 
"The Queen Shade Tree of Many a Southern Home." Its fruitage 
is so prolific that it is said to be ''one of the most astonishing food 
engines in all nature, yielding literally barrels of nuts " 




From an Eminent Writer on Food Values. 

"Being almost entirely a non-flesh eater, I have for sixty years been a con- 
noisseur of nuts. I have sampled many varieties, from the filberts and cob nuts 
of Kent to the almonds and "English" walnuts of California. And in between 
I have tried nuts of many countries and many climes. I must say that Hess paper 
shell pecans are different from, and superior to, anything in the nut line I have 
ever eaten, with a single exception, the Kentish filberts. They should be a boon 
to fruitarians.'' H. B., Los Angeles, Cal. 



Keystone Pecan Company, Manhcim, Pa. 



11 



The Hardiest of all Nut Trees. 

The reason for this long life is that the pecan is the hardiest of 
all nut trees — free from all ordinary tree pests and diseases because 
it is of the hickory group, and the longest lived member of that 
group. The lack of surface moisture — the great enemy of most 
trees — is not a disadvantage to the pecan, for it has a remarkably 
long tap root which goes down so deeply into the ground that it 
draws moisture from the sub-soil. Since the blooming period is late 
in Spring, the buds are not injured by frost. 

The wild pecan has been a popular nut, rivaling, because of its 
superior flavor, such other nuts as the walnut, chestnut, shell-bark, 
hickory-nut, etc. This popularity was secured despite its many 
drawbacks — for the shell of the wild pecan is hard and the partition 
walls between the kernels thick and bitter. There was too little 
meat and too much difiiculty getting it — but the experts saw in the 
great demand for pecans, despite these disadvantages, the promise 
of rich reward for improving the pecan. 

The seedling pecan is the next step toward pecan perfection. 
Larger than the wild i)ecan, and thinner shelled, it equals or sur- 
passes it in flavor, depending upon the variety of seedling under 
consideration. Selling at an average price of thirty to forty cents 
per pound, which is double the cost of the wild 
Ijecan, it has so much more meat and it is much 
more accessible, that it is always a better pay- 
ing purchase for the housewife. So justly 
popular has the seedling pecan become that the 
discriminating dealer and the discriminating 
housewife will have nothing to do with the 
inferior, thick-shelled pecan, which is brightly 
tinted and polished to disguise the inferiority. 




Pecan trees 
fear no 
drought. 



Seedling 
superior to 
ivild grown 
Pecan. 



Surprised at the Size of Kernel — and Flavor. 

"I have received the 22-ounce bo.x of Hess High Grade Seedling Pecans which 
I ordered from you a few days ago. 

I am well pleased with the nuts. They are certainly worth the price, and 
then some. On opening the nuts, I was surprised at the remarkable size of the 
kernels within, and of their delicious, sweet, nutty tlavor. Your Pecans are par 
e.xcellent ! They have, no doubt, a very high food value, and I intend in the 
future to omit meats from my diet and substitute your Pecans instead. It is 
remarked by eminent physicians that much of the cancer that is prevalent nowa- 
days is due to the excessive consumption of meats, and that the only remedy is 
for people to give up the eating of meats and use nuts instead. 

I e.xpect to favor you with additional orders in the future." J. P. F. 
Roanoke, Va. 



12 



The Story of the Paper Shell Pecan. 



The 

paper-shell 
Pecan — the 
Queen of all 
nuts. 



The Paper Shell Pecan. 

Had the work of the experts not gone any further than estab- 
Hshing the improved Pecan Seedhngs, it would have justified all their 
efforts — for the pecan seedling bore justifiable comparison with any 
other nut on the market in food value and accessibility ; until the 
Paper Shell Pecan was developed from budded trees. 

The Paper Shell Pecan has an air-tight shell so thin tliat it is 
easily broken in one hand by a gentle pressure. The kernel is large, 
easily removed and of flavor so much finer that any observing person 
can distinguish it from any other pecan by taste alone. 

Instead of a bitter partition wall which imbeds itself in the 
nut when it is cracked, as in the wild pecan, the paper shell pecan 
has a thin, tissue-like membrane which is easily removed. 

With the paper shell pecan a larger portion of the total weight 
of the nut is meat than with any other nut, with the possible ex- 
ception of the finest almond. And this meat of the paper shell pecan 
contains seventy per cent, fat, while that of the almond contains but 
fifty-four per cent. 

The paper shell pecan is the Queen of all nuts. 

It has no equal from the standpoint of size, appearance, acces- 
sibility of meat, size of kernel, and fine flavor. The only disadvant- 
age is the limited supply — for there is but a small territory in which 
soil conditions and climate are right. The walnut is raised in 
England, France, Italy and in large quantities in the three Pacific 
coast states, and in smaller quantities elsewhere. Tlie paper shell 
pecan seems to flourish best within a forty-mile radius in Georgia, 
embracing Calhoun and Dougherty Counties. Of the half million 
budded pecan trees in the world, 
two hundred and forty thousand, 
or practicalh^ half, are in this 
forty-mile radius. Were complete 
records of yield accessible, it 
would be seen that this half of the 
budded trees has produced far 
more than their portion of the 
crop. 




The State Entomologist of Georgia, Air. E. L. Worsham, writes : "The 
Pecan Industry has developed beyond the point where it matters not what you 
or I believe. It is a success. Results are being produced of wide interest and of 
permanent character, and the industry in the Albany district in the hands of 
competent men has wonderful potentialities. The hundreds of thousands of 
dollars invested by shrewd business men in Commercial Pecan properties, after 
personal investigation, argues that the development being recorded in the Albany 
district is meritorious.'' 



Kcxsfoiic Pecan Company, ManJicini, Pa. 



U 



Hess Paper Shell Pecans. 

It is never difficult to con\ince any one who has tasted the Hess 
Paper Shell Pecan, and compared it with the other pecans, why the 
paper shell pecan should be selling for eighty cents to v$i.25 per 
pound and up, when the wild pecan is selling at fifteen to twenty- 
live cents per pound. The only difficulty is that not one person in 
a thousand has ever tasted the improved Paper Shell Pecan, because 
the supply is so small compared to the demand. 

As Luther Burbank, admittedl}- the foremost horticulturist in 
America, has well expressed it, "We have now one Pecan where 
we ought to have a million to create a market. The demand for 
them is constantly increasing, and the price is advancing each 
year, for the demand is many times greater than the supply." 

The Hess Paper Shell Pecans are selected varieties of the 
Paper Shell Pecan, grown and developed in the Pecan Belt of 
Georgia by expert horticulturists. These experts, who have made 
Pecan Culture their life work, succeeded after expensive experimen- 
tation in developing the Hess Selected Varieties from the Stuart 
and the Schley Pecans, which w^ere accepted as standards of high 
quality by the National Nut Growers Association. The Stuart and 
Schley are naturall}^ hardy, rapid growers, which will live for cen- 
turies because of their resistance to fungi, destructive insects, cold 
and drought. The Hess Selected Varieties combine with these 
advantages of the Stuart and Schley a purity of strain which as- 
sures uniformly superior pecans. 

Note the color plate on cover, photographed from average nuts 
of the improved Hess Selected Varieties of Paper Shell Pecans. 
The large size of the nuts, the thinness of the shell, the almost entire 
elimination of the center partition, the finer flavor and the greater 
food value put these nuts in a class by themselves for quality. Do 
not take our word for their superior quality. Note what others say 
about Hess Paper Shell Pecans. 



The finest 
varieties of 
paper shell 
pecans. 



" Cover a County with Trees," to Supply Demand. 

"Your shipment of 'Paper Shell Pecan Nuts' reached my house yesterday, 
so we had some of them with our coffee at dinner, and I take pleasure in con- 
firming all you claim regarding the size and quality of those nuts. They are 
certainly superb, and a revelation of what specializing may accomplish in that 
line. 

Now what you want to do is to cover with such nut trees a whole county 
in the most favorable part of the South for the purpose, so as to give the people 
an ample supply, and I will guarantee they won't go far for any other nuts." 
L. F. S., Ridgewood, N. J. 



14 



TJie Story of the Paper Shell Peeaii. 



A fezv 
commenda- 
tions from 
many 
received. 



Re-orders 
and the 
cash — prove 
superiority . 



Advance 
orders 
accompanied 
by cash. 



The Highest Priced Pecans — Yet Demand 
Exceeds Supply. 

A high official of the city of Xew York wrote: "Such pecans 
never were seen before in our neighborhood. They are all you 
advertised them to be. I sent a box on to my daughter in Boston." 

From a Philadelphian who "knows nuts," we heard: "The 
Hess Pecans, which terminated our Xmas Dinner, were highly ap- 
preciated. Being a lo\'er of Pecans, I must say that Hess Pecans 
are far superior to any other Pecans I ever tasted; especially the 
Paper Shell kind found great favor among my guests.'' 

From another, whose husband is at the head of a publication 
which enjoys national prestige as an exponent of the finest nuts and 
other foods by mail order, we received the following letter, along 
with the second order : "Enclosed find check for $2.00 for which 
send me a 22 oz. package of your Paper Shell Pecans. Kindly ship 
these at once as we wish them for Thanksgiving." 

Why take more time with detailed copies of letters from 
customers ordering and re-ordering Hess Paper Shell Pecans. Is 
not the fact that re-orders were received in itself the best evidence of 
superior cjuality when it is considered that the selling price of these 
nuts was $2.00 for 22 ounces, or about the rate of $1.50 per pound? 

The man whose wife wrote the last letter questioned whether 
any one would pay this price — for an addition of fifty per cent, of 
the price of the a\-erage paper shell pecan was too much, in his 
opinion. He questioned the price before he sampled the nuts and 
noticed how much they were preferred in his own home and among 
his friends. After that the price was forgotten and the recollection 
of superior quality led him to re-order, just as it did many others. 

The few checks shown on page fifteen in this book tell an 
eloquent story of orders and re-orders — it is, of course, possible to 
show in this manner but a fraction of the cases in which re-ordei*s 
were secured. 

Those who taste Hess Pecans no longer consider them a luxury. 
Their delicious flavor and their remarkable food value make them 
such a necessity that immediately after last season's crop was ex- 
hausted, advance orders began to pour in upon us. A large per- 
centage of these were accompanied by cash in advance for increased 
quantities of Hess Pecans. 



Hess Paper Shell Pecan " Everything You Say It Is." 

"This is to acknowledge receipt of your kind favor of the 6th, and also the 
box of your very fine pecans. Your product is certainly everything you say_-it is, 
and we are enjoying them very much." G. H. P. Co., Battle Creek, Michigan. 




A few checks received in response to our advertising ol Hess Pecans. Continuous demand 
on a cash-in-advance basis proves superiority. 



16 



The Story of the Paper Shell Pecan. 



An unique 
Christmas 
gift. 



Nezv York 
City can 
consume 
the world's 
supply. 



Tons of Nuts Were Sold by Us. 

during the past year. Not all of these were the Hess Improved 
Paper Shell Varieties — because practically our entire supply of these 
was sold out over the Christmas and Holiday season. The demand 
exceeded our most sanguine expectations — the number of $2.00 
boxes sent out as Christmas gifts being greater than we had ex- 
pected to sell in November, December and January combined. Some 
purchasers have bought from us by mail as often as twelve times 
during the past winter — which record was probably surpassed fre- 
quently by dealers handling our Pecans. 

On page nine you will hnd an illustration showing one shipment 
of Hess Paper Shell Pecans — boxed ready to send out. 

In one average American city of only 51,000 population (based 
on the 1 910 census) the sales of Hess Paper Shell Pecans through 
one wholesale grocery firm astounded us by their volume. The same 
grocery salesmen who considered it a "joke to attempt to sell such 
fancy nuts" came back with orders from stores of all classes in all 
parts of the city. Even in the poorer sections the grocers ordered 
and re-ordered till the stock of the wholesaler was all gone and we 
could supply him no more of this finest grade pecan — for our total 
supply had been exhausted. 

For prices at which these pecans 'sold, see letter, pages 44 and 45. 

The city in which this test was made was not our home town. 
It does not stand above the average in per capita wealth — nor is 
there any evidence to show that the people of this city are more likely 
to be interested in pecans than any average Americans. To make 
such a test in a large city like New York was impossible — for the 
entire yield of our entire plantation, planted twenty trees to the acre, 
could not supply a week's demand there, if New York bought pecans 
in the same proportion as the city cited above. 

A\'e must take immediate action to increase the quantity of 
Pecans offered for sale. 

Even with the wonderful increase in vield each year from 
established orchard units, we cannot fill half as large a percentage 
of the demand as we did two years ago. 



The Country Gentleman, of September 19, 1914, says : "Tyler is a Texas 
town with about 12,000 people who eat a carload of pecans every year. If New 
York ate Pecans at the same rate, it w^ould consume our * whole crop."' (This * 
our refers to all the world's crops combined.) 



Kcysfojic Pecan Coin/^aiiw Manhciiii, Pa. 



17 



Why This Phenomenal Demand for Finer Pecans? 

How can this remarkaMc dcniand for tlic tmcsl invade pecans 
— despite tlie lii_<^iier ])rice — l)e accounted for.-' 

Tliere are many reasons: 

Tins demand for perfect pecans parallels an increased demand 
f(jr nuts (jf all sorts— pecans in particular. 

As any well informed person knows there is stroui^iy in e\i- 
dence all over the world a mo\ement toward nut meat as the true 
meat. 

Some ha\e joined in this for religirms reasons, some for ethical 
reasons, and others purely from dietetic or hy^'ienic considerations. 

The Seventh Day Adventists will refer you to the twenty- 
ninth verse of the first chapter of (ienesis. which reads, ".And (iod 
said, Behold, I have given you every herjj hearing seed, which is 
upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the 
fruit of a tree yielding seed: to you it shall he for meat." Idiey 
reason that according to this ])assage "true meat" grows on trees, 
and in this helief they are joined hy many others for ethical, dietetic 
and hygienic reasons. 

The 3ilillemiinm (luild, which lias a small hut active memjjershi]) 
of thinking peojjle in Boston, is ty])ical of these ethical movements 
which ha\e assumed great im])ortance in ])arts of lun'0])e. While 
they hase their [jreference for nut meat on ethical rather than relig- 
ious grounds, the memhers of these organizations sim])ly ahhor the 
idea of eating the carcass of any animal. 

Everywhere in .America there are large numhers of i)eo])lc 
organized and unorganized, who will not eat the flesh of any animal 
f(jr dietetic or h\'gienic reasons. 

Physical Culture restaurants, where nut meats are substituted 
for animal flesh, are increasing in number in every large city. 

In sanitaria of all sorts there is a tendency to minimize the 
use of animal meat or do away with it entirely. In one system of 
forty sanitaria, there are practically no drugs used because the pa- 
tients are put on a perfected diet system in which nuts are sub- 
stituted for animal flesh. 



A country- 
wide 

movement 
tozvard nut- 
meat as the 
" true meat. 



By religious, 
ethical and 
hygienic 
organizations 



Hess Pecans are Rich in Nutriment. 

"They arc certainly I'cry fine nuts, and I am very glad to know about them. 
As to their food value, 1 have no doubt they are rich in nutriment." A. G. D., 
Brookline, Mass. 



18 



The Story of the Paper Shell Pecan. 



Less 

butter-fat 
demanded — 
more nut-fat. 



Pecan tree 
nature's most 
pozverful 
food 
producer. 



Nuts Meet the Demand for Uncooked Foods. 

Many physicians who speciaHze in diseases of the intestinal 
tract are ach'ising the nse of uncooked foods. Nut meat is practi- 
cahy the only source of both protein and fat in large proportions, 
which it is safe to eat uncooked. 

Even these causes, which are so readily apparent, hardly ac- 
count for the fact that the consumption of nuts in America had in- 
creased in 1 910 to three and one-half times the amount consumed 
in 1900; while the consumption of animal meats failed to keep pace 
with the increase of population during this same period. 

Possibly you will hnd this increase in the consumption of nut 
meats even more surprising when you consider that there was prac- 
tically twenty per cent, less butter sold from America's farms in 
1909 than in 1899, according to U. S. Census ligures. In other 
words, the consumption of butter, wdiich is the principal table article 
competing with nuts in fatty content, was falling off to four-fifths 
during practically the same period that the consumption of nuts was 
increasing to three and a half times its former figures. 

Perfected pecan nuts contain more protein than beefsteak, and 
almost as much fat as butter. Isn't it only natural that people 
should want their nourishment and fat in this concentrated form — 
hermetically sealed and kept pure by nature? Is there any such as- 
surance of purity and cleanliness — on butter — or on beefsteak? 

Place a Hess Pecan on a hat-pin, light the nut-meat and 
notice that it burns like a candle because it is seventy per 
cent. fat. 

The Country Gentleman, in an article on Pecans, published the 
following: "The nut is nutritious, very nutritious, and we already 
have numerous instances of one good big tree making more human 
food than the best acre of 1)lue grass in all Kentucky. Plainly, the 
tree-nut method beats the grass-meat method of feeding man. Tree 
crops are to be the agriculture of the future." 



Delicious in Taste — Will Order Again. 

"I am a reader of Health Culture Magazine, and a great lover of 
Pecans. Seeing your ad. in Health Culture Magazine about Seedling Pecans, I 
have decided to have you send me a 12 lb. carton for which please find enclosed 
my check. Kindly send same at your earliest convenience and oblige." J. J. W.. 
Jr., Cincinnati, Ohio. (First purchase was 12 pounds.) 



Keystone Pecan Company, ManJieim, Pa. 



19 



Pecans for Sundaes and Candies, Etc. 

The young women of America, who have changed so largely 
from soda water and ice cream to nut sundaes, may not realize that 
they are getting increased nourishment — but that is the case. That 
this is no small element in the consumption of pecans is evidenced 
by the fact that one druggist alone uses 1,500 pounds of crushed 
pecan meat per year for nut sundaes — while hundreds might prob- 
ably use as many if the true figures were known. 

Nut candies are in such great demand that the best confection- 
ers are astonished. Unfortunately for them, certain nuts become 
unfit for use in summer and the confectioner must fall back on the 
homelv peanut, which falls short in food A'alue, or use the pecan — 
the finest of nuts, which nature has furnished in an air-tight shell, 
which assures satisfaction the year round. The confectioners of 
New Orleans — a hot weather city — long since learned their lesson 
and that city is almost as much noted for its pralines — a pecan nut 
confection — as 
for its wonderful 
fete, the Mardi 
Gras. Pralines 
were too good to 
be confined to 
N e w Orleans 
alone. Along 
the boardwalk in 
yVtlantic City and 
other watering 
])laces ; and at the 
finer confection- 
ery shops of the 
larger cities, they 
are in good de- 
mand. There is 
no other way to make acceptable pralines except by using pecan nuts 
— the finest pralines require that the nuts be whole, which, in turn, 
indicates another need for paper shell pecans. 




Enos H. Hess and Vice-President, Jos. A. Philips, Director 
and some stockholders on the Keystone Pecan Plantation. 



The Pecan 
is the 

concentrated 
form of 
nourishment. 



From the President of the Albany, Ga., Chamber of Commerce, J. A. Davis, 
we hear : "The strongest evidence of my belief in the future of this wonderful 
development is that I have just planted a grove of one hundred acres. I know 
of no agricultural or horticultural industry which with proper attention holds 
promise of returns half so large as the pecan in Southwest Georgia. Both our 
soil and our climate are peculiarly adapted for the production of the finest nuts 
in most abundant yield. These nuts are the size and quality which make them 
absolutely the finest nut on the market. They will always command a fancy price 
because the supply will never equal the demand."' 



20 



The Story of the Paper Shell Pecan. 



Greater 
digestibility. 



Convenient, 

condensed 

nutriment. 



Maximum Food Value — in Condensed Form. 

One remarkable fact about the improved paper shell pecan is 
that it is at the same time richer in protein and fat than other nuts; 
yet is more digestible. People who say, "I cannot eat nuts because 
I suffer from indigestion," are surprised to hear of Pecans being- 
prescribed by physicians — until they try the paper shell pecan them- 
selves and find that it agrees even with the in\'alid. Unlike other 
nuts which contain less fat — it can be eaten in quantity without salt, 
without any ill effect. This is probably due to the fact that the 
improved pecan contains an oil which seems to possess many of the 
lubricating and healing qualities which are found in olive oil. 

The digestibility of Pecan fat is an established fact — pecans 
are used largely at such scientifically conducted sanitaria as those at 
Battle Creek as a substitute for meat and corrective diet in trouble- 
some cases of intestinal derangement. 

Consider the many fortunes made in olive oil — then remember 
that even if scientific research should show that the pecan is not 
so l^eneficial as olive oil, it has many manifest advantages in its more 
appetizing form, assurance of cleanliness and purity, etc., which 
make its future promising. 

No authority has ever questioned the nutritive value of the 
pecan. Even the wild pecan, which is far inferior in nutritive quali- 
ties to the paper shell pecan, has met with the highest recommenda- 
tions from eminent authorities. But the fact that this nutriment 
was locked up within a hard shell, separated by a partition so strong 
and bitter that it was seldom possible to get out a satisfactory kernel, 
kept the wild i)ecan from enjoying the wide po])ularity it desired. 
The introduction of the improved seedling and paper shell varieties 
not only led to an interest in these improved varieties, but caused 
such an increased demand for all pecans that prices rose on even the 
poorest wild ])ecans. But the public found that the cheapest 
pecans are the dearest in the end — and the demand for pecans 
has increased most rapidly on those grades from which the 
largest kernels, containing the utmost in nutritive value, could 
be removed whole. 



A Fine Oil — But Not Enough Nuts. 

"According to analysis, the Pecan is richer in fat than any of the other nuts, 
70 per cent, of the kernel is fat. The Pecan may at some time be in requisition 
as a source of oil — an oil which would doubtless be useful for salad purposes — 
but it is never likely to be converted into oil until the present prices of nuts are 
greatly reduced." Prof. H. Harold Hume. Florida State Horticulturist, Glen St. 
Marv. Fla. 



Keystone Pecan Company, ManJieiui, Pa. 



21 



A Test Which Proves the Best Pecans 
Cheapest in the End. 

The willingness of the general puhlic to pa}' the maximum price 
for Hess Paper Shell Pecans can be attributed only to the fact that 
this impro^'ed variety of Paper Shell Pecans gives more in return for 
e\'ery dollar in\'ested. You can prove this to your own satisfaction 
by comparison with any other pecans at any price. 

There are five representative classes of pecans which should be 
considered in any test ; below is a report on a test made of equal 
weights of all five grades. \\t have stated opposite each the retai' 
average selling price generally secured for that grade pecan, although 
on Hess varieties we have secured higher prices by our improved 
merchandising. 

First. Common wild pecans sell at about 22c. per pound. 

Second. Common seedlings sell at about 28c. per pound. 

Third. Hess Selected Seedlings, at an a\erage price of 35c. 

Fourth. Common Paper Shell Pecans retail at an average of 
about 75c. per pound. 

Fifth. Hess Paper Shell sell at $1.00 per pound and up. 

The results of a careful comparison of these five grades, using 
an ecjual weight of each, disclosed the following facts : 

A — Before Cracking. — Though size of the nut whole counts 
for but little in judging pecans, as compared to the C[uantity and 
quality of the meat within the shell ; those making the test were in- 
terested to note that average Hess Paper Shell Pecans w^ere ex- 
ceeded in size only by a few of the largest pecans in class four — 
other varieties of paper shell pecans which were later found to have 
large shells only partially filled with meat. 

It was noted that the brightest looking nuts proved in the end 
to be the poorest quality — for the cheapest wild pecans are dipped in 
varnish to make them look attractive. 

B — Opening Process. — The Hess Paper Shell was found to 
open more readily in the hand without nut crackers, than did the 
other classes of nuts when nut crackers were used. When the frag- 
ments of shell were compared it was easy to see why — superior thin- 
ness of shell distinguishes Hess Paper Shell Pecans. 

The meat in the Hess Paper Shell Pecans filled the shells com- 
pletel}', while large air spaces were noted in many other varieties. 



" Why are They So Different ? " Sun Ripened. 

"You cannot say too nuich for the Hess Pecans. I am delighted with them. 
They are by far the most dehcious nuts I have ever eaten. I am quite inter- 
ested to know how you grow them and why they are so different from other 
Pecans. I have eaten Pecans from near Evansville and Mount Vernon, but the 
ones von sent are far superior in flavor and thinness of shell." G. H. H., Ravenna, 
Ohio.' 



More value 
for every 
dollar spent. 



A test 

which shoivs 
why. 



22 The Story of the Paper Shell Pecan. 

C — Separating Meat From Shell — When the various lots of 
nuts were carefully opened in sejiarate piles, a careful comparison 
was made of the meat and shells in each pile. 

The number of whole kernels was counted — -no other pecan 
had four-fifths as many whole kernels as were found among the 
Hess Paper Shell Pecans. The common wild pecan and the common 
seedling had such hard shells that the meat w'as practically all broken 
to small fragments in opening the shells. No detailed comparison 
was necessary between these crumbs of nut meat, mixed with shell 
and pith, and the whole kernels or half kernels of the Hess Paper 
Shell Pecans. 

D — The Pith Test — In the Hess Paper Shell and the fourth 
variety — which costs nearly as much per pound — there was prac- 
tically no pith — the partition taking the form of a thin membrane 
which was easily removed instead of the thick, bitter wall of 
the two cheaper pecans. 

E — The Final Test — When the nut meat, which was in ap- 
petizing or edible form, was separated from the shells and partitions 
in each case, it was found that for table use the Hess Paper Shell 
gave the greatest weight of nut meat for every dollar invested 
in the nuts, carriage and opening costs included. The common 
paper shell variety which cost nearly as much as the Hess Paper 
Shell was a poor second, followed closely by the Hess Improved 
Seedlings, while the two cheap grades were in the end the most 
costly investment — because they yielded so small a quantity of satis- 
factory nut meat for each dollar invested. 

This is also confirmed by many other tests, which show that 
even including small particles of nut meat, which are far from 
appetizing in form, the wild pecan and the commion seedling yield 
less than four pounds to each ten pounds of nuts; the Hess Seedling 
Pecan and the common paper shell about five pounds to each ten 
pounds, and the Hess Paper Shell Pecan about six and three-quarters 
pounds of meat to each ten pounds of nuts. 

W^ith such superiority proven for Hess Paper Shell Pecans, it is 
no longer a question whether the public will pay the higher price. 
The question becomes rather, "Can the public afford to pay less for 
any other nut, and get less value for every cent paid ?" 



" The Finest Flavored Pecans Ever Tasted." 

"The box of High Grade SeedHng Pecans came all right and we find them 
all that your advertisement represents them to be. They are good size and nearly 
meat — almost no shell. Very nutritious and of a flavor far exceeding the ordi- 
nary Pecan. Our friends, w^ithout exception, pronounce them the finest flavored 
Pecans they ever tasted." E. B. P., Melrose, Mass. 



Keystone Pecan Company, Manliciuu Pa. 



23 



That the pubHc measures Pecan 
values rightly is proven by the re- 
markable success of our sales on 
Hess Paper Shell Pecans in the past. 
Our only problem now is to meet the 
demand for these highest grade 
paper shell pecans and for the im- 
proved Hess Seedling Pecans — 
which are by far the best investment 
for the housewife who uses pecans 
for baking, candy-making, salads, 
nut filling, etc. 

It is simply marvelous how 
hungry the world is for these fine 
tasting Pecans, and it will be hungry 
for many years to come because the 
increase in supply does not keep pace 
with the rapidly increasing demands 
for high quality Pecans. The pres- 
ent problem, therefore, is to produce 
more fine Pecans by planting more 
Pecan trees. 




Ten pecan nuts in one cluster, of 

which seven can be seen in cut. The man 
in picture is Mr. Thos. F. Miller, of Allen- 
town, Pa., who visited the orchard in 19l3 
with Mr. B. L. Johnson, of Allentown, by 
whom this photo was taken. 




View in an eighty-acre pecan nut orchard, near our plantation, for which 
the owner refused eighty thousand dollars. 



Full of Meat — A Strong Point on Hess Pecans. 

"The meats were full and of the finest flavor. Possibly tlie best recommenda- 
tion I can give is to enclose herewith my check for whicli please send me 12 
pounds of pecans as advertised. I would be pleased to know what part of the 
South these nuts come from." H. G. S., Pittsburgh, Pa. 




A corner of the Nursery 

in which our young trees are grown. In the distance, our seedHnc 



orchard which is bearing profitable crops. 
photo taken May, 1912.) 



(Above 




Two years later in the same nursery corner. 

Mr. George Bolhnger, of Allentown, one of our orchard-unit holders 

inspecting the nurseries in 1914. Note the size to which 

two-year-old trees have grown. 






1^^'^'^^ 




Another section of pecan orchard on our plantation after cultivation. 

Note the sturdy growth of these young trees by comparing 

with height of man in foreground. 



Kcysfojic Pecan Company, Maiihciiii, Pa. 



25 



The Big Problem — Establishing More Orchard Units. 

Like all tree crops of value, pecans do not 1)ear the tirst couple 
oi years after planting. It is during this period before bearing- 
begins that care and attention are necessary — once well established, 
the Pecan is hardy as an oak. 

We have in our nurseries many budded trees of those two 
proN'en valuable varieties on two or three years' root, waiting to be 
set out in orchard units — the average size of these trees being three 
to five feet high. 

We own 2,873 acres of fertile land in Calhoun County, Georgia 
— which has been examined by experts of highest standing and ap- 
pro\'ed by such men as the government expert as of the rare char- 
acter of soil necessary to produce finest paper shell pecans. 

Corroborating these opinions is the fact that we have right on 
this property many pecan trees, bearing nuts in large quantities, de- 
spite the fact that they were planted thirty trees to the acre some 
twenty years ago. Now only twenty Hess Paper Shell Pecan Trees 
are being planted to the acre, because of their vigorous growth. 
These trees will undouljtedly increase in size and in annual yield 
every year till they are forty years old — and l)ear their maximum 
crop for a century or more. 

The Keystone Pecan Company was organized and incorporated 
for the purpose of planting its property with Paper Shell Pecans on 
a co-operative and profit-sharing basis — that is, of the 2,873 acres, 
1,800 acres wdll be sold to investors, the investor buying as few or 
as many acres as he desires, the company plants the property to 
Paper Shell Pecans of standard varieties, twenty trees to each acre. 
It cultivates and cares for the trees and the land for a period of five 
years for $300.00 per acre, on easy payments. After the five year 
period the company shares with the unit holder in the profits from 
the units as explained on the following page. Our unit plan is con- 
sidered by conser\'ative investors as the safest, most equitable and 
most profitable plan to plant our large Pecan plantation in the short- 
est possible time. 



More 
orchards 
a vital 
necessity. 



Co-operative 
and profit- 
sharing 
system. 



H. A. Halbert, Coleman. Texas, says: "I consider the Paper Shell Pecan 
industry the safest, most profitable and lasting nf all the industries that spring 
out of mother earth. I never had a Paper Shell Pecan tree yield me more than 
$253.25 in one year, and never less than $10. per tree after the native trees have 
been budded five years to Paper Shell Pecans." 



26 



Tlic Story of fJic Paper Shell Pecan. 



All trees that 
die replaced 
without 
charge. 



Crops 
marketed 
for you. 



3old on easy 

monthly 

payments. 



You ozvn 
the land. 



We Sell You the Land and Farm it For You. 

Under this attractive plan the compaii}- agrees to sell to investors 
land up to i,8oo acres out of this plantation. The interest of the 
company and its obligation to the investor does not cease 
with the sale of the land, for the company binds itself to planting, 
and is planting, not less than the full i,8oo acres of land with Paper 
Shell Pecans of the finest standard varieties — the Hess Paper Shell 
Pecans — twenty trees to the acre. 

The company further obligates itself to do all the cultivating 
necessary — caring for the young trees and the land for a period of 
five years, replacing at its own expense all damaged trees, and 
guaranteeing that at the end of the five years all trees will be in 
a healthy, thrifty condition. All this is done without expense to 
the buyer. The profits from any nuts grown during this period 
will be paid to the Unit Orchard owner after deducting i2j/< per 
cent, commission for gathering and marketing. 

After the expiration of the five-year period, the company is 
to continue to operate the property on the most profitable basis, 
fertilizing and farming the land, cultivating and pruning the trees, 
as well as gathering and marketing the pecans, and will receive for 
this service i2i/< per cent, of the profits; 875^ per cent, being paid 
to the Unit Orchard owners. Under the agreement and plans as 
outlined there will be enormous profits. 

As the expense of developing will be distributed over a period 
of five years, the Company has arranged to sell the Orchard Units 
on small monthly payments, thus placing a golden opportunity 
within the reach of the investor of moderate means and giving him 
a chance to make his savings and surplus work for him as effectively 
as though he had a large amount of capital. 

You become absolute owner of the acre of land in yoiu" orchard 
unit. The land is cleared from trees and stumps, the Pecan trees 
are planted, cultivated and cared for as a whole on a large scale. 
This is co-operation luider a system that relieves you of every worrv 
and which makes for economy and large profits. 



One of the Best Possible Investments. 

"We also wish to express our confidence in the Pecan industry. We believe 
it to be one ofthe best possible investments. This locality (The Albany District) 
is especially favorable as to soil and climate conditions necessary to the best 
results. '' S. B. Brown, President Exchange Bank, Albany, Georgia. 



Keystone Pecan Coiiipaiix, Manhciui, Pa. 



27 



The Practical Answer — the Unit Plan. 

There are many people who know of the great successes made 
in Pecan growing in this district, who would be glad to buy five, ten 
or twenty acres of our Pecan Plantation. The land in itself would 
undoubtedly be a good investment, because cases are on record show- 
ing increase of double and treble value on land which did not have 
a bearing orchard. But this would not be of any great advantage 
in solving the problem of supplying more of the finest pecans unless 
the purchaser had the knowledge, skill and time to bring his trees 
to the bearing point. 

Even assuming that he could bring the trees to the bearing- 
point, his ability to market his product advantageously could not 
possibly equal that of a co-operative group of orchardists, who have 
the most skilled supervision service and the advantages regarding 
marketing which come from collective efl:'ort. 

With several carloads to ship instead of a few barrels, the 
large orchardist is in a position to command the very lowest rate 
and to reach the market in just the right season. 

Ask any member of the Citrus Fruit Exchange whether he has 
made more money since he joined those organizations than he did 
before, and he will tell you an interesting storv which cannot fail 
to convince you of the advantages of collective marketing". Yet 
oranges and grape fruit, the products of the members of those ex- 
changes, are perishable in such a short time that they derive the 
benefits of but a fraction of the crop compared with the Hess Paper 
Shell Pecans. 

There are other advantages of collective effort which exceed 
even the advantages in marketing. Among them is the advantage 
of skilled supervision at minimum cost. The professional or busi- 
ness man can live in the i^orth, enjoying the income which his 
specialized efforts assure, yet be growing his pecan orchard in the 
South under the supervision of expert pecan horticulturists, whom 
he could not possibly afford to retain for a plantation of less than 
a thousand acres, with labor costs minimized as a result of such 
skillful management. 

He need not lose one hour from his regular business to super- 
vise the gathering and marketing of his crop of pecans. While he 
makes money at his own business, his orchard unit also makes 
money for him without sacrificing his time. Yet he is assured 
every advantage of co-operative marketing; he knows that Hess 
Pecans are known from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and that the 
demand constantly exceeds the supply. 



Expert 
supervision, 
at lozver cost 
than hired 
help, by our 
plan. 



Live at home. 
Farm Pecans 
in Georgia. 



28 



Tlic Story of flic Paper Shell Pecan. 



A $600 
orchard unit 
for $300. 



Possible 
only tinder 
our plan. 



Our Plantation is Divided into One-Acre Units. 

Each acre is plotted ot¥ on the plan of our property and indi- 
cated with an Orchard Unit number. 

In each of these units twenty trees are planted. 

The purchaser of an Orchard Unit secures absolute ownership 
of his land, but the entire plantation is operated as a whole. This 
plan enables us to clear the land, plant, cultivate and care for the 
young" trees at a fraction of the cost which would Ije necessary if 
the units were operated separately. 

Judge the economies effected by our i)lan of co-operati\'e man- 
agement l)y the fact that our charge for clearing the acre unit, 
planting the twenty budded pecan trees, replacing any that fail to 
thrive not for one year only, but for fi^•e years, and cultivating and 
caring for vour trees for five years is only $300, while the aver- 
age selling price of a good acre unit, with pecan trees four or 
five years old, is $600. 

Why can we dexelop and sell you a unit worth $600 for $300? 

The cost of land, cost of clearing, cost of setting trees and 
developing a small orchard, is of such magnitude as to be almost 
prohibitive to any person with a small income. Under the Orchard 
Unit Plan this cost is reduced owing to the scope of the undertak- 
ing. Alachinery and stock that would cost an average of $300 an 
acre for a ten-acre orchard, costs only $20 an acre for a 1,000 acre 
tract, the cost of an orchardist and the operating expense being in 
the same proportion. A small orchard managed on a small scale 
cannot produce pecans within fifty jjer cent, as cheaply as if that 
small orchard is a Unit under large plantation management. 

The company gains also by the natural increase in value of the 
1,073 ^cres of fertile pecan growing land which it is planting for 
itself — and which it holds as pecan orchards under the same condi- 
tion which apply on any unit in the eighteen hundred being sold. 
All are on an equal basis — co-operative effort in growing and 
marketing is assured by our enormous interest in the investment 
made bv us in our own units. 



One of the Safest Industries' 



The Profit is O. K." 



"The Pecan industry is in its infancy, but is l^eing developed very rapidly 
in this immediate section. It is considered one of the safest industries in South 
Georgia, and the profit is O. K. once you get the trees in good bearing condition." 
L. J. Cooper, President First National Bank, Waycross, Georgia. 



Kcysfoiic Pecan Coiiipaiiy, Maiihciui, Pa. 



29 



$10 Down Per Unit, $5 Per Month. 

Each Orchard Unit \\\\\ cost $300 nncler the following condi- 
tions: $10 down when ai)i)licati()n is made for the Orchard Unit, 
and $5 per month per Unit until it is paid in full. No interest is 
charged on deferred payments. Should one prefer to pay cash for 
one's Orchard Unit, a discount of ten per cent, will be allf)wed on 
the amount of cash paid, and the deed will he delixered at once. 

Upon receipt of an application, together with the first payment, 
an Orchard contract will be prepared and executed and forwarded. 
Upon the completion of the payments, the deed will be delivered. 

As the selling price to-day of a perfect four- or five-year-old 
orchard is $600 per acre, based on actual sales, one can readily see 
that since our compensation is only iz^A per cent, of the profits, 
we must have unbounded faith in the Unit System and its applica- 
tion to orchards as well as lieing absolutely sure that Pecan Orchards 
in this locality will be highly profitable. We have the required 
faith and we know the profits are sure or we would not make this 
ofifer. 

Photographs of the property showing the progress of the trees 
on the plantation will lie forwarded to each unit holder each year 
during the development period, after which time the Company will 
issue an annual crop report. 

Remember that the three hundred dollars cover every expense 
of developing" your unit to bearing age. 

The contract of sale plainly states that the purchaser may after 
the first five years locate his home on his units and look after his 
own trees, managing his property entirely independent of the com- 
pany. But we believe that our management and our methods of 
marketing \\\\\ prove so economical, efticient and satisfactory that 
the unit owners will always want the compau}- to manage their 
units and harvest and market their pecans for them. 

If an}' unit holder, who is paying for his unit on the $5 per Units full paid 
month ])asis, and shall ha\e made promptlv upon the date called tn case of 
for by contract, eight or more monthly payments in addition to the 
initial payment of $10, should die before his payments of $300 per 
unit are completed, the company will upon proof of death furnish 
to his estate a deed to his unit or units and all further payments on 
the same shall cease. This protects the family or estate of the unit 
holder who meets his monthly payments promptly, against all pos- 
sibilitv of loss due to his death. 




One of our units, ready to be cleared. In this picture the 

plantation manager is shown at the left; in the center is the Sales 

Manager of the Pecan Company. Thos. F. Miller, and to the 

right, M. G. Esbenshade, 1st Vice-President. 




A unit, after stumps have been cleared and cotton planted, ready 
to plant to pecans. 




Showing a pecan tree 20 months after planting. The unit holder shown 
in this picture is George C. Bollinger, Allentown, Pa. 



Keystone Pecan Com pan x, Manheini, Pa. 31 

Each Unit Increases in Value $100 Per Year. 

Remember that according to the most authentic information 
your orchard unit increases in value each year at the rate of $ioo 
per annum ; while you make your pa}'ments at the rate of only $65 
the first year and only $60 each year thereafter. 

From the minute the purchaser puts down the first $10 the 
contract of sale protects him — his is the opportunity to gain from 
the increase under the value of these units and to reap the profits 
from the constantly increasing crops of pecans, as soon as the trees 
begin to bear. 

Pecan Orchards Sell at $1000 Per Acre. 

As closely as can be figured out a pecan orchard unit which 
is well established should sell at $1,000 or thereabouts. This figure 
is based upon actual sales of or offers for pecan orchards, most of 
which were planted with seedlings or varieties which are not so 
l^rofitable as the finest grade paper shell pecans. 

From Waycross, Ga., we hear from A. C, Snedecker : 

"I do not know of any bearing or near-bearing groves for sale 
here or elsewhere. A four-acre grove thirteen years old, and not 
especially desirable, was sold at auction a few weeks ago to settle an 
estate, for $4,050.00." 

The Atlanta Constitution (one of the foremost newspapers 
in America) on January 27, 1910, published an offer of S8o,ooo 
for a pecan grove of eighty acres, which the owner, Airs. Ramse}', 
declined, as she would not know how to so profitably and safely 
invest such a large amount elsewhere. 

The Americus Times Recorder reports that Mrs. C. W. 
Gunnels, of Terrell, Ga., only a few miles from the Keystone Pecan 
Company's property, refused a cash offer of $20,000 for her grove 
of eleven or twelve acres, or very nearly $2,000 per acre. Alost 
of these trees were seedlings, with but a few budded trees^yet Airs. 
Gunnels says she has an assured income from her pecan trees 
and knows that the trees will produce even larger crops as they 
grow older. 

An Attorney of Albany, Ga.. was authorized to pay $5,000 
for five acres of Alobile top-worked trees. This offer — Sr.ooo an 
acre — was refused. 



An Increase in Value of $100 Per Year Per Acre. 

Air. E. B. Adams. Secretary of the Albany. Ga., Chamber of Commerce, 
writes : "Each season the Pecan groves enhance in value, it being agreed by emi- 
nent Pecan authorities that properly cared for Pecan groves increase $ioo an 
acre in value each year." 

This is an investment where your principal increases and your income gets 
larger as the vears roll bv. 



32 



The Story of the Paper Shell Peean. 



$1016.00 
Income at 
the end 
of 10 years. 



There is good reason why $i,ooo an acre is considered so low 
a selHng price l)y the average owner of a l^earing pecan orchard that 
it is onh' in rare instances that sales are consummated. 

A thousand dollars at interest yields at most $60 or $70 per year, 
while on conservative figures an orchard unit which cost only $300 will 
yield the seventh year $160, the eighth year $200, the tenth year $320, the 
fifteenth year $1000 and the twentieth year $1800. 

The taljle below shows a conservati\e estimate of the probable 
yield of an orchard unit, based on figures which are readily provable. 

Average Yield of Orchard Units. 



4th year 
5th year 
6th year 
7th year 
8th year 
9th year 
10th year 

15th year 
20th year 

Possibly the figures in the table astound you. You think there 
has been some mistake in them — because it is almost unbelievable 
that in less than ten years the aggregate sales from the unit should 
bring an income as great as your original in\estment, so that m 
efifect you own your unit and get the subsecjuent returns without 
any of your money being invested. 

At the end of ten years your $300 investment has yielded 
you, on the basis of the aljove conservative table, $1,016.00. This 
means an average of over $100 per year on e\'ery year since the first 
payment of $10 was made — or over $200 per annum for every one 
of the five bearing years. 

The figures are astounding. Yet there is plenty of evidence 
that proves they are moderate. Other good authorities indicate as 
average yield the figures which we state as maximum }'ield. particu- 
larly between the ninth and twentieth years. For instance, to make 
our table conservative, we have adopted the low figure of one hun- 
dred twenty-five pounds as average yield per tree in the fifteenth 
year, while the figures generally used for that year are one hun- 
dred seventy-five and two hundred pounds per tree. 



Per Tree 


Average Yield 

Per Tree 

Nuts at 40c per lb. 


Average Income 
Per Tree 


Income 
Per Unit 


a few nuts 








3 to 5 lbs. 


4 lbs. 


$ 1.60 


$ 32.00 


5 to 10 lbs. 


8 lbs. 


3.20 


64.00 


15 to 25 lbs. 


20 lbs. 


8.00 


160.00 


20 to 35 lbs. 


25 lbs. 


10.00 


200.00 


24 to 40 lbs. 


30 lbs. 


12.00 


240.00 


35 to 50 lbs. 


40 lbs. 


16.00 


320.00 


100 to 150 lbs. 


125 lbs. 


50.00 


1000.00 


150 to 300 lbs. 


225 lbs. 


50.00 


1800.00 



K. Powell, Cairo, Ga., reports 465 pounds of Pecans from one tree in its 
twenty-second year. At Monticello, Fla., a seedling pecan twenty-one years old 
bore 638 pounds of nuts for Mr. O. Lindsay. J. B. McLean, of Lexington, Miss- 
issippi, reports 900 pounds of pecans per annum from one tree, probably forty 
vears old. 



1 



Keystone Pecan Company, Manheim, Pa. 



33 



Results Should Far Exceed Our Figures. 

We have indicated a selling price of forty cents per pound, 
while experience indicates that fifty cents has been the average in the 
past for the various mixed grades, and less desirable varieties not 
commanding so large a retail price as the Hess varieties. 

We prefer that the investor in one, five or more of our orchard 
units shall be agreeably surprised at the fact that the yield is greater 
and the price per pound larger than our table shows. Our interests 
and those of our investors are identical — selling a unit at our low- 
sale price benefits us little unless the return which is secured from 
the gathering and sale of nuts is satisfactory. 

Why do we sell Orchard Units? 

We can answer that in a few words : 

To raise money for development purposes. 

To make it possible for us to meet the demand which already 
exists for the finest paper shell pecans. We want to plant our 2,873 
acre plantation to paper shell pecans as quickly as possible in order 
that we may share in the profits from selling car loads of pecans 
instead of tons. This year we had to return the money received 
with orders for pecans because our supply was exhausted early. 
Some of our customers have already asked us to reserve paper shell 
pecans out of the coming crop to be delivered next holiday season. 
We have no doubt that even when our entire acreage is in bearing 
that we will be as short of supplying the rapidly increasing demand 
as we are now. 



Table based 
on 40c. per 
pound- 
market 
averages 50c. 



Most Searching Investigation. 

Prospective investors and owners of orchard units are welcome 
any time at the plantation in order that they may see for them- 
selves just what progress has been made and is being made. It is 
necessary that we shall have undisputed control of the orchard dur- 
ing the first five years — the only period when close cultivation is re- 
quired — in order that we may make good on our guarantee and turn 
over to you a successful orchard at the end of that period. But 
we shall be glad to have you establish a bungalow or cottage on the 
ground at any time afterward. 



The Country Gentleman tells of one budded tree planted in January, 1892, 
which, including the crop for 1912, yielded 7,797 pounds. One man paid $150 
for one year's crop from this tree. At the end of twenty-one growing seasons 
this one tree has yielded nearly $900. 

According to the Southern Cultivator the same tree bore 344 pounds in 1913. 

(Note that the above is based on an average price of 50c. per pound — while 
our table is based on 40c ) 



34 



The Story of the Paper Shell Pecan. 




Where 
Winter does 
not consume 
what the 
Summer 
produces. 



Fishing and 

hunting 

aplenty. 



Joseph Seitz, director, visiting Mr. and Mrs. Walker, Plantation residence. 

An Ideal Southern Home. 

Practically every thoughtful man looks forward to the time 
when he may have a home where the winter rigors of the Northern 
climate shall not sap his vitality. No one need apologize for this 
longing — or consider it a sign of lack of vigor or backbone. 

For the tendency toward establishing homes in the South is 
not based alone on this desire for an agreeable, equable climate. It 
is founded on sound economic principles. 

In the North, the winter consumes the food which the summer 
produces. In the fertile sections of Southern Georgia a succession 
of crops properly planned makes the whole year productive. You 
can accomplish more in one year than in several years in the North. 
Vegetation is so rapid that in two years a home is surrounded by a 
growth of trees, flowers, shrubbery and growing crops which it 
would require five years to develop in a cooler, Northern clime. 

While the people of many Northern cities are chilled to the 
marrow in Winter, and swelter under the heat and humidity of 
Summer, the Government statistics show a surprisingly slight varia- 
tion between Winter and Summer in Southern Georgia. Here there 
is no enervating humidity compared to that found in the Northern 
and Central Atlantic States. 

Here is the ideal home — "where the sun shines bright, and the 
meadow's in bloom" — where good fishing and hunting abound — 
where the call of the "Bob White" is heard from September to 



Not a Crop Missed for 15 to 20 Years. 

U. S. Bulletin, page 319, in speaking of the INIantura Pecan, says: 

"Up to 1907 it has not missed a crop for 15 to 20 years, the crops for the 

previous ten years having averaged 100 pounds, and for several years 150 to 275 

pounds." 



Keystone Pecan Company, Manheim, Pa. 



35 



March — where the outdoor Hfe is the natural, healthful life the 
year round. 

Here with the fine southern town of Albany only a short dis- 
tance away, with fine roads extending roundabout in all direction, 
you may live on a typical plantation. 

While Nature, soil and sun combine to produce profitable 
crops on the Pecan trees which have been turned over to you a 
bearing orchard, you may fish, boat or swim on the beautiful Lake 
Marcelia — a twenty-five acre lake right on our plantation. The 
water for this lake originates in Crystal Springs, the banks of the 
lake are devoid of swamps and are surrounded by beautiful groves 
of live oak, covered with the beautiful Spanish Moss — an air plant 
which like other parasitic growths, cannot grow on the pecan tree. 

We expect eventually to erect a club house or hotel on the 
banks of this lake where unit owners may be accommodated should 
they wish to spend their vacation here enjoying the delightful 
climate of Southern Georgia during the cold winter season of the 
north, enjoying hunting and fishing. 

When you live amid such surroundings — you really live. 

The country all about is so attractive that many a man in the 
North would be glad to pay $300 for an acre on which to build a 
southern home. If he planted on that acre only enough pecan trees 
to yield an average income of $18 per year, he would have six per 
cent, interest from his money. One tree would yield more than 
$ig per year, on an average, from the fifth to the twentieth 
year. Why be satisfied with a single tree when there is room for 
twent}' trees and a small bungalow on your acre ? 



Fine tozvn 
nearby. 



A. Southern 
home-site. 





'■ A ■ I • 

Luxuriant 

1. Spanish Moss and 

Gigantic Live Oak Trees 
beautifully mirrored in Lake 
Marcelia where fishing abounds in sea- 
son. Keystone Pecan Plantation. 



U. S. Bulletin of Department of Agriculture, 1909, tells on page 384 of one 
tree which bore a crop of 450 pounds, and on page 385 of another which bore a 
crop of 400 pounds. 




The manager of the Keystone Pecan Company Plantation 
inspecting the progress of the orchards. 





OS. 



The freight station on our Plantation which enables us to ship promptly 
and economically over the Georgia Central Railroad. 




An engine on the Keystone Pecan Company Plantation. 
Used in ginning cotton and grinding corn. 



Keystone Pecan Company, Manheini, Pa. 



37 



Investigate the Company — and its Officers. 

Because the most conservative statement of yield from our 
pecan units sounds too good to be true, we have found that it was 
necessary to urge prospects to investigate every phase of the 
company. 

For this reason, the men who have invested most largely are 
always the men most capable of getting at the real facts — and act- 
ing on their own knowledge, lawyers, bank officials, doctors, den- 
tists, ministers, school-teachers, business-managers, merchants, 
bookkeepers and others of the most intelligent classes are becoming- 
owners of one, five, ten and fifty unit orchards because their in- 
vestigation has shown : 

First. That the Company is financially strong — $150,000 cor- 
poration, which received its charter in 191 1 from the Superior Court 
of Georgia. Subsequent to the incorporation, the Company pur- 
chased what its officers believed to be the finest plantation in Cal- 
houn County for the growth and development of Paper Shell Pecans. 
The plantation consists of 2,873 acres of land, whicli is being gradu- 
ally developed and planted in Pecan Orchards. From the date of 
the purchase the Company has expended large sums of money an- 
nually upon the development of the property, and notwithstanding 
this fact, the entire plantation is subject to a lien of only Twenty- 
five Thousand Dollars ($25,000), and to provide for this charge a 
sufficient amount is set aside from the sale of each Orchard to dis- 
charge the lien upon the land sold. This fund is in the hands of a 
special Trustee appointed for that purpose, whose duty it is from 
time to time to secure releases of lien, which is done when the fund 
is sufficiently large to meet the recjuirements of the lien creditor. 
The lien charged on the entire property is less than Ten Dollars 
($10.00) per acre, but the Company, to assume more speedily re- 
leases, set aside more than twice the amount of the charge per acre 
so that under this plan the entire lien is discharged before one-half 
of the property is sold and conveyed. This plan was specially de- 
vised for the protection of Unit buyers, and we know of no Com- 
pany that has devised a safer plan. It is the production of the most 
careful consideration given in the interest of the Unit buyer. It 
is the application of the "Safety First" principle. 

Second. That the orchards are under capable supervision. 
The active officers of the Company were close students of pecan 
growing for years previous to 191 1. 



Why your 
investment 
is secure 



"Pecan growing is subject to none of the perils of stock or cattle raising, 
such as hoof and mouth disease. The pecan is of the hickory family. It defies 
drought and frost. Yet Pecan meat is growing in popularity, while the produc- 
tion of animal flesh fails to keep pace with the population." 



38 The Story of the Paper Shell Pecan. 



Realizing the fact that the making of profits depend in part 
on the skill of the orchardist, the company employed as Superintend- 
ent of Orchards, an educated, practical horticulturist, having a large 
pecan grove of his own, where he earned a reputation as an orchard- 
ist that secured him highest recommendation of well known authori- 
ties. The fact that such a man accepted the position with the 
Keystone Pecan Company is a tribute to the possibilities of this 
plantation, for he is too ardent a lover of pecans and regards his 
reputation too highly to engage in an orchard proposition where 
there is the least element of chance. 

For a plantation manager they chose a man who knows every 
inch of the property, having been on it over twenty years. 

Third. That the Company has the character of soil, the 
kind of budded trees, and the shipping facilities needed to fill 
the demand for better grade pecans which come from all over 
America and abroad. The immediate district in which our plan- 
tation is located is the natural home of the pecan. No place in the 
known world is so well adapted to the growth and perfect develop- 
ment of the pecan as this immediate district. The soil and the 
climate is peculiarly adapted to the rapid growth of the tree and 
to producing and maturing the nut crop to the very highest degree 
of perfection. (See letters from food specialists who purchased 
Hess Pecans — bottom of pages lo and 23.) 

Fourth. That this Company had recently proved by actual 
sales, made from advertising, that these finer grade pecans could 
be sold to the retail trade at prices fifty per cent, higher than most 
pecan growers secure for their finest product — because of superior 
quality of the nuts and superior methods of merchandising. (Note 
that the table on page 32 is based on an average selling price 
per pound of 40c., while other authorities use fifty cents per 
pound in all their calculations, despite the fact that higher 
prices have prevailed on Hess Pecans.) 

Fifth. The Company has demonstrated also that its manage- 
ment is capable and efficient. Every one is interested heartily in 
the success of the orchards. All are men of unquestioned honor 
and ability ; as inquiry in their home cities will prove. They are, 
as the following pages show, men old enough and experienced 
enough to capably manage the business, yet young enough to retain 
their business capacity and vigor for many years to come. 



From the cashier of The Bank of Leary, Ga., H. S. Carson, we hear : "After 
making investigation and spending some time on your nice grove near here, I am 
very optimistic over the same. I know of no investment that looks so good at 
present, and my recent trip confirms my belief that the soil and climate is par- 
ticularly adapted to the growth of Pecans." 



Keystone Peeaii Company, MaiiJie'un, Pa. 



39 




ELAM G. HESS. 

Elam G. Hess, President of the Keystone Pecan Co., is a resident of Man- 
heim, Lancaster Co., Pa., and is well and favorably known, not only throughout 
Lancaster County, but in many parts of America. Mr. Hess, who is thirty-eight 
years of age, worked on his father's farm in Lancaster County, until he was 
eighteen years of age. He taught pubHc school for five years, prepared for col- 
lege at Perkiomen Seminary, graduating in 1902, and in 1906 graduated 
from Gettysburg College. He had acted as a traveling salesman during his 
summer vacations for Underwood & Underwood, New York, and had built such 
a reputation for fair dealing among the best class of trade that he was appointed 
field manager, along with Mr. Thomas F. Miller. After serving in this capacity 
for two years, he was sent to England to represent the same company. 

In his travels he was impressed with the opportunities which existed for 
finer grade pecan nuts, and began to make an exhaustive study of their produc- 
tion and their selling possibilities — one result of which has been the formation 
of the Keystone Pecan Company. 

Mr. Hess devotes his entire time to the success of the Company, and is 
an acknowledged authority on pecan nuts, their growth and their marketing. 

Reference : Keystone National Bank, ]\Ianheim, Pa. 



" The Shell is Thin and Full of Meat." 

From a purchaser of Hess Paper Shell Pecans : "I think the flavor beyond any nuts we 
have ever had, the shell is thin and full of meat." A. R. S., Belmont, Mass. 



40 



Tlie Story of the Paper Shell Pecan. 




M. G. Esbenshade, 
First Vice-President of the Keystone Pecan Co. 

lives on the farm in Lancaster Co. on which 
he spent his boyhood days. (R. F. D. No. 3.) 
He is noted throughout the county and beyond 
as a successful grower of tobacco and potatoes. 
He is 40 years of age, a graduate of Lancaster 
Business College, a director of the Farmers' 
Association of Lancaster County. 

In his extensive travels throughout the 
United States he has visited nearly every State. 
Mr. Esbenshade has received valuable first 
hand information on the growing and market- 
ing of large food crops — especially nuts. In 
1895 he travelled widely in Florida, paying 
special attention to orange and citrus fruit 
groves and pineapple fields, and in 1897 he 
worked with the large growers of wheat in 
Dakota and California and in the apple or- 
chards of Colorado. In 1905 he made another 
trip south, studying the groves along the Gulf 
Coast in which wild and seedling pecans were 
raised, since which time he has made several 
trips throughout the south w-ith special refer- 
ence to Paper Shell Pecans. 

Reference : The Northern Trust and Savings 
Bank of Lancaster, Pa. 



M. G. ESBENSHADE. 



Enos H. Hess, 
Second Vice-President of the Keystone Pecan Co. 

lives on the farm on which he was reared — 
R. F. D. No. 3, Lancaster, Pa. He is 45 years 
of age. He is noted as a truck farmer, selling 
his own products to Lancaster City consumers 
at famous Lancaster Markets, which he attends 
twice a week. 

Formerly a director of the Ideal Cocoa 
Company, Lititz, Pa. 

Reference : Farmers Trust Co., Lancaster. 
Pa. 




ENOS H. HESS. 



Keystone Pecan Conij^any, Manhcini, Pa. 



41 




F. G. Young, 
Secretary and Treasurer of the Keystone Pecan Co. 

is a dealer in real estate and real estate invest- 
ment securities with offices in the Woolworth 
Building, Lancaster, Pa. After thoroughly in- 
vestigating the possibilities of nut culture, and 
especiall}- pecan nut culture in southwest 
Georgia, and the constantly increasing demand 
for nut meat, became connected with the Key- 
stone Pecan Company. 

A native of Indiana, where he engaged suc- 
cessfully with the Blickensderfer Mfg. Co. 
with offices in Indianapolis, and subsequently 
at Cleveland, Ohio. 

He has resided in Lancaster for nearly ten 
years, and known as a highly successful sales- 
man. 

Reference : Union Trust Co , Lancaster, Pa. 



F. G. YOUNG 



Joseph Seitz, 
Director of the Keystone Pecan Co. 

is a native of Lancaster Co., residing at Mount- 
A'ille, Pa., formerly a farmer, now a dealer in 
leaf tobacco. 

Reference : jNIountville National Bank. 




JOSEPH SEITZ. 



42 



TJic Story of the Paper Shell Pecan. 




M. G. Hess, 
Director of the Keystone Pecan Co. 

is 50 years of age. He resides at Manheim, 
Pa., and was for about twenty years cashier 
of the Keystone National Bank of Manheim. 

He is now Treasurer and General Manager 
of the Manheim Mfg. and Belting Co. — a highly 
successful business. 

Reference : Lancaster Trust Co. 



M. G. HESS. 

Willis G. Kendig, 
Director of the Keystone Pecan Co. 

is one of the most noted corporation lawyers of Lancaster. He is widely known as a lawyer of 
keen discrimination regarding commercial enterprises, and the fact that he and so many asso- 
ciates from the richest agricultural county in the United States place their money in this 
Georgia pecan orchard is evidence of its worth. Mr. Kendig is 40 years of age; the son of a 
doctor of Salunga, Pa., who also enjoyed a most excellent reputation in his field. 
References : Fulton National Bank. 



Joseph A. Phillips 
Director of the Keystone Pecan Co 

is the Mayor of Mercersburg, Franklin 
County, Pa., which position he has held for 
almost five years. Age 55. He has been a 
seed merchant for twenty-seven years, doing a 
broad business, for which the first twenty-three 
years of his life — spent on the farm — has well 
fitted him. 

Reference: First National Bank of Mercers- 
burg. 




JOSEPH A. PHILLIPS 



Keystone Pecan Company, Mmiheim, Pa. 



43 



B. L. Johnson, 
Director of the Keystone Pecan Co. 

resides in Allentown, Pa., and is Sales Mana- 
ger for that district — embracing important 
counties in Pennsylvania and New Jersey — for 
the Burroughs Adding Machine Company, a 
$5,500,000 corporation, which is known all over 
the world. Mr. Johnson is known throughout 
the Allentown district as a self-made man, who 
has at an early age held positions of trust 
and responsibility because of his earnest and 
efficient work and his remarkable business 
judgment. 
Reference : Penn Counties Trust Co. 




B L. JOHNSON 




Thos. F. Miller, 
Sales Manager of the Keystone Pecan Co. 

is 41 years of age. A graduate of State Normal School 
and also of Lebanon Valley College, and taught public 
school three years. He has had long, successful ex- 
perience in selling, and was sixteen years in the em- 
ploy of Underwood & Underwood, and was asso- 
ciated with Elam G. Hess, President of the Company, as' 
Field Manager, appointing and drilling hundreds of suc- 
cessful salesmen for their Travel System. He resides in 
Allentown, Pa., and is favorably known as a man of 
high ability and good reputation. Note his letter here- 
with. 

Reference: Merchants National Bank. 



THOS. F. MILLER 



44 



The Story of the Paper Shell Pecan. 



Thos. F. Miller, 
950 Jackson St.. Allentown, Pa. 

AUentown, Pa., May 24, 1915. 
El.\m G. Hess, Pres. Keystone Pecan Co., 

Manheim, Pa. 
Dear Mr. Hess: 

Your communication asking me to write a letter stating "How I became interested in 
Paper Shell Pecan culture and in the Keystone Pecan Company" received. 

My interest in this new industry and my ambition to some day own a pecan orchard dates 
back before the Keystone Pecan Co. was in existence. My study of this improved nut, its 
food value, the whole world to supply, its advantages over other tree crops, in harvesting, 
packing, shipping, not perishable, besides the long life of the trees and the small expense of 
up-keep after the fifth year and the wonderful yield satisfied me that it was the safest and 
most profitable industry I know. 

When you concei\ed and formed the Keystone Pecan Company with its co-operative plan 
I saw my opportunity and invested and purchased Units. Having been in business with you for 
so many years and knowing your capacity to plan big business and your ability to carry your 
plans to perfection, also the other members of the company being known as clean, honest and 
progressive business men gave me explicit confidence. 

When you wanted me to become sales manager I decided to visit the plantation. In Oc- 
tiber, 1913, in company with some of my friends, I made my first visit. We were delighted 
beyond expression with everything. Competent management which seemed to be working out 
a perfect system. The trees and tons of pecans and acres of vigorous thrifty young trees was 
evidence enough to convince anyone that this is the soil and climate where pecans do their 
best. My friends zvith mc invested, and to my knoivledgc every one zvho has visited the plan- 
tation since has invested as much as their circumstance zcould permit. Some have assumed 
heavy obligation so that they and their family would be provided with a permanent and in- 
creasing" income through life and possibly a century or more thereafter. We feel that we must 
work hard now to support our units for a short time, but later they zvill zvork for us and sup- 
port us. The enthusiasm of those who have been on the plantation and investigated and knew 
the men back of it, and who have invested their own money, is the strongest kind of evidence 
of the merit of the proposition. Yours sincerely, 

THOS. F. MILLER. 

From Mr. George C. Bollinger, an orchard unit purchaser. 

The most interesting trip of my life was my visit to the plantation of the Keystone Pecan 
Company. We remained over night at the hotel in Albany, and the next morning went to the 
plantation. We first came to one of the planta- 
tion corner-stones, and as we travelled on prob- 
ably half a mile farther, we came to the beautiful 
lake on the plantation, still farther on we came 
to the cotton gin and then to the plantation home, 
occupied at the present time by Mr. Walker, the 
local manager. 

I then began to realize as never before the 
immensity and opportunities for the proposition, 
and as we began our journey through the nur- 
sery, filled with thrifty young trees, then through 
the old orchard of stately trees literally bearing 
down with nuts, then through acres and acres of 
the finest cotton, then fields of corn, then open 
land not planted at present, then more cotton 
and still more corn, and probably a strip or 
stretch of woodland and then through the young 
orchards, planted in 1913 and 1914, and still more 
fields of cotton and corn, until we had covered a 
stretch of land over four miles long and about 
two and one-half miles wide. I remarked then 
that surely this would eventually be the finest 
orchard of any kind in the United States, and I 
felt that I would like to make my home there. 

One of the things that interested me greatly 
was the black, rich, loamy soil that seemed to be 
identically the same over the entire plantation. 
I found the plantation to consist of beautiful 
slightly rolling land, with no trace of the swampy 
variety found in some parts of the Gulf States. I GEO. C. BOLLINGER. 




Keystone Peean Company, Maiilieiin, Pa. 



45 



also tound everything to conform strictly as it has been represented to me. As an investor, I 
have carefully considered the two most important questions from an investor's standpoint. 
First, Is it a save investment? Second, Is it a paying investment? 

In answer to the first question, will say from what I saw and learned on the plantation, I 
consider it gilt edge. Real estate, which is the basis of this proposition, is the safest kind of an 
investment. It seems to me as this industry advances, that bare land will be so in demand in 
this pecan section that it will command a very high price. My investment is secured by the 
company who has invested their money and must depend on making a success of my units, as 
it is co-operative, and the profits to all depend in growing large quantities of pecans. 

In answer to the second question: "Is it a paying investment?" This is very easy to an- 
swer, as growers have kept accurate records of their trees from year to year, which furnish 
not estimates but facts on which to base calculations. I saw a sixteen-year-old tree that bore 
over two hundred pounds in 1914. The record of this tree shows that it bore not less than 
one hundred and eighty pounds per year during the past five years. Records show six-year-old 
trees bearing as high as thirty-seven and a half pounds. In nearly every instance the records 
showed a higher yield than the general estimates which were given in the literature. 

I have also had the experience of selling the "Hess Pecans" right in my own community. 
My firm, J. A. Eberts & Co., having handled a large part of the 1914 crop. We had a surpris- 
ingly large sale considering the fact that paper shell pecans had never before been seen or 
heard of anywhere in this section. The No. i Hess Pecan retailed at $1.00 for a twelve-ounce 
box, or at the rate of $1.33 per pound. 

I can conscientiously say. after having visited the plantation and having become thoroughly 
familiar with all phases of the proposition — having become acquainted with the men who com- 
pose the Company, and above all the honesty and integrity of the management, I consider it 
the safest and most profitable investment that has ever come to my notice, and conscientiously 
recommend the investment to any one, earnestly believing it is an opportunity that is rarely met 
more than once in an entire lifetime. 

GEO. C. BOLLINGER. 

With J. A. Eberts & Company. 
Allentown. Pa., May 31, 1915. 





t^X'Mmii>£ 



A — George C. Bollinger, of Allentown, Pa., standing by a tree on our plantation which 
bore 225 lbs. of pecans last season. B — Lloyd W. Hoagland, of Sommerville, N. J., a well 
known automobile salesman, A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, another man 
who came, saw and bought. 



Not An Imperfect Nut in the Lot. 

"The pecan nuts purchased from you were the finest we have ever used, and were in every 
way satisfactory, as there was not one imperfect one in the lot." M. E. McD., Roselle, N. J. 



46 



The Story of the Paper Shell Pecan. 




Pecan Nut Orchard on our plantation in Calhoun Co. Georgia. 
1914 crop sold from Maine to California, 

No Investment Could be Safer. 

Think it over. Let your own judgment decide. Ask yourself 
these questions in regard to any investment you have under con- 
sideration. 

What is the security back of my investment? In the Key- 
stone Pecan Co. there is an acre of land which becomes yours on the 
payment of $300. Remember this — you own the acre of land itself. 

Land is the safeguard of the safe investments. Land can- 
not burn up, cannot be stolen ; land cannot be wiped out by panics. 
The biggest trusts base their bond issues and their mortgages on 
land — yet the manufacturing plants which are built on that land 
may, due to panic, fail to produce enough to pay interest on the 
bonds or mortgages. Even the largest industrial companies have 
suspended or decreased dividends since the European War started — 
yet nature continues to provide foodstuffs and man still needs 
to eat them. 

Productive land is the best of land investments. Tree crops 
are the profitable crops, which make land most productive. Note 
that the Country Gentleman tells of single trees making more 
human food than a whole acre of Kentucky blue grass. 



Orders 12 Pounds — Wants Prices on Larger Quantities. 

"Have also received the box of pecans, which I find satisfactory as illus- 
trated in every respect. Kindly send me a 12 pound carton of same variety. 
Also kindly give me your prices on larger quantities." A. S. B., Portland, Oregon. 



Keystone Pecan Company, Manheim, Pa. 47 

The pecan is the surest of profitable crops — because after 
the first five years, during which we assume all the risks, the pecan 
requires practically no attention. Gathering the nuts and selling 
them represents the bulk of the effort required after the first five 
years. 

You cannot be deceived on this score — because we bind our- 
selves by contract to do this work for 12^ per cent, of the profit. 
Would we deceive ourselves — could we afford to take any chances 
if we did not know that the pecan is as hardy a tree as the hickory 
or oak, free from the dangers of frost and blight, and a surer profit 
payer than any other crop of any sort? 

We could not give such a guarantee on a fruit tree — for every 
farmer knows that apples and peaches are subject to many perils 
of frost, storm, blight-borer, and of loss in shipment. Pecans are 
hardier than hickory nuts, they cannot be shook off the tree till 
ripe. Citrus fruits — like oranges and grape fruit — are liable to 
frost, and spoil so quickly that it is impossible to hold them long 
before marketing. Paper Shell Pecans can be held a year without 
losing their delicious flavor and nutritive value. 

There can be no glut of fine pecans — because they can be raised 
only in limited territory, they have the whole world for a market 
and the whole 3^ear for a selling season. As the famous Luther 
Burbank well says (see page 13) : "We have now one pecan where 
we ought to have a million to create a market." 

An assurd increasing market for perfected pecans, at an ex- 
cellent profit, is back of every dollar you invest here. 



Who Should Invest in Pecan Orchards ? 

To provide an income for later years, "He must," says the The young 
American Fruit and Nut Journal, "look to a business that will in- man. 
crease in value and returns. The improved Pecan orchard fulfills 
all these requirements. It is safe, pays little at the beginning, but 
increases its income gradually, and when ten or fifteen years old 
will yield ten times more than the same money would in almost 
anv other business." 



"On many articles of food, from meats to fruits, the cost of loss in trans- 
portation eats the heart out of the profits. Pecans require no refrigeration ; kept 
in any cool, dry place without loss or deterioration, can be shipped all over the 
world— fear no competition from abroad for they are grown only in the most 
limited districts in America."' 



48 



TJie Story of the Paper Shell Pecan. 



The man of 
middle-age 
and above. 



Husbands 
and parents. 



Business and 
professional 
people — all 
men or 
women with 
foresight. 



Who Should Invest in Keystone Pecan Orchards ? 

(Continued from page 47.) 

To provide now while his earning power is at its greatest, for 
those years when his energy begins to ebb — let him plant his money 
where it grows. As J. B. Wright said before the American 
Pomological Society : "Plant a pecan grove, and when yon are old, it 
will support yon. * * * It will lighten your burdens while here, and 
when you are gone your children and your children's children will 
rise up and call you blessed." 

To provide an annuity for their wives and families, which will 
exceed in annual return any equal investment for the purpose and 
which will yield a growing income each year. No father wants to 
look forward and see the home broken up for lack of income, the 
wife deprived of comfort and the children deprived of education — 
because he put off till the morrow which never comes, this invest- 
ment for their protection. 

Business and professional incomes vary greatly. There should 
be some provision for the years of reduced earning power — when 
conditions beyond your control cut to a mere fraction the satis- 
factory income of last year. Because pecan orchards have their 
foundation in land, because Nature yields her crops abundantly de- 
spite wars and panics, because the demand for Hess Pecans, which 
we have proved within, was not eft'ected by the hard times in the 
winter of I9i4-'i5, you know that here is a dependable source of 
income. The period of uncertainty on pecans is the first five years 
— when we assume the risk ! 

"For want and age save while you may, 
No morning sun shines the whole day," 

says Ben Franklin. Are you saving for the "rainy day?" Ask 
yourself that question — and insist on a fair answer. 

Accept no excuses — excuses will not provide for you and your 
loved ones in years to come. 

Don't say, "Pll begin to invest when I get a larger income." 
If your income were reduced a tenth to-day — you would manage 
to live on the balance. Put that tenth now where it will protect you 
against "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." 

Orchard Unit Applications are Enclosed for Your Convenience. 

Select which you may desire, full cash payment or deferred payments. 

KEYSTONE PECAN COMPANY 

Southern Office on Our Plantation Northern Office 

Calhoun Co., Georgia. Woolworth Building, Lancaster, Pa. 

President's Office 

Manheim, Lancaster Co., Pa. 
Please mail all applications and checks to Keystone Pecan Co., Manheim, Lancaster Co., Pa, 



DEFERRED PAYMENT 

Pecan Orchard Unit Application 

To ELAM G. HESS. President 

KEYSTONE PECAN CO. 1 9 1 

MANHEIM, PA. 

I hereby appty for ■■, Orchard Units of the Keystone Pecan Company , 

' • -^ • How many 

situate in Cathotxn County ^ Georgia^ and I agree to pay for the same at the rate of 
Three Hundred Dollars {$300) per Unit, as folloivs: 

Dollars accompanying this application, the receipt 

($10 for each unit desired) 

<whereof is hereby acknoTvledged by the Company, and -■■■ • 

' -^ kj ^ I -^ ^j5 pgj month per unit) 

'Dollars per month, payable on the first of each and every month until the entire pur- 
chase price is paid, at <which time I am to receive a Warranty Deed in fee simple for 
the Units purchased. It is understood that each Unit shall be planted to tiveniy (20) 
paper shell pecan trees of the standard varieties. If my payments are made promptly 
on the first day of each month, the Company hereby agrees that my Units shall become 
full paid in case of my death, as fully explained on the re'berse side of this application. 



Signed 

Application accepted for the company by 

Street and No. 



City and State 



CASH PAYMENT— 10% Discount 

Pecan Orchard Unit Application 

To ELAM G. HESS, President 

KEYSTONE PECAN CO. ,191 

MANHEIM. PA. 

I hereby apply for „— -- Orchard Units of the Keystone Pecan Company, 
situate in Calhoun County, Georgia, and I agree to pay for the same at the rate of 
Three Hundred Dollars {$300) per Unit, on the folloiving understanding: 

That accompanying this application I shall make remittance of $270 per Unit and 
shall receive full paid receipt and deed for Unit, the Company allovjing W% for cash 
vjtth application. 

Signed 

Application accepted for the company by 

Street and No. 
City and State 



Units Full Paid in Case of Death. 

^ If any unit-holder, who is paying for his unit on the $5 per 
month basis and shall have made promptly upon the date called 
for by contract, eight or more monthly payments in addition to 
the initial payment of $10, should die before his payments of 
$300 per unit are completed, the company will upon proof of death 
furnish to his estate a deed to his unit or units and ail further 
payments on the same shall cease. This protects the family or 
estate of the unit-holder who meets his monthly paymants 
promptly, against all possibility of loss due to his death. 



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